Door closers



DOOR CLOSERS Filed Jan. ll, 1965 maj ATTORNEYS United States Patent O M3,289,242 DOOR CLOSERS George Raeburn Mallory, Sandys St., Blenheim,Ontario, Canada Filed Jan. 11, 1965, Ser. No. 424,593 6 Claims. (Cl.16-66) This invention relates to door closers.

It is an object of this invention to provide a door closer having atelescopic rod and tubular member, one for attachment to a door and theother for attachment to a door frame, the tubular member being providedwith a bushing for slidable reception of the rod, wherein such bushingand a housing therefor are designed to be a pre-assembled unit (allowingrotation of the bushing relative to the housing), which unit may then beconveniently attached to the tubular member.

In this way a bushing housing unit and tubular member is provided whichis conveniently and easily assembled and secure when assembled.

It is an object of the invention to provide convenient and inexpensivemethod of attaching and securing the housing assembly mentioned in thesecond preceding paragraph to the tubular member,

It is an object of the invention to provide a door closer having atelescopic rod and tubular member, one for attachment to a door and theother for attachment to a stationary member, the unattached rod endriding in the tubular member, and being provided with a piston, andmeans whereby a chamber for said piston may be defined having a limitedair passage in and out and having convenient means for controlling saidpassage size whereby the rate of closing said door may be controlled.

Objects of this invention are to provide convenient means for closingsaid chamber, convenient means for attaching and securing said closingmeans and for controlling said passage size.

It is an object of this invention to provide a door closer having atelescopic rod and tubular member, one for attachment to a door and theother for attachment to a stationary member, wherein said tubular memberis designed to connect to a hook member which in turn is intended forattachment to one of the door or stationary members.

In drawings which illustrate a preferred embodiment of the invention:

FIGURE 1 is a lperspective View of the invention in use;

FIGURE 2 is a crosssection showing the hook connection to the tubularmember; and

FIGURE 3 is a view of the bushing for the rod.

In the drawings a door closer is shown comprising: a rod 10, adapted tobe received in and to telescope with a tubular member 12. Rod isdesigned for attachment to the stationary door frame 14 by means of abracket 16 and a pivotal connection 18 between the rod and the bracketabout an axis parallel to the axis of the door. Tubular member 12 isconnected to the door by means of a hook having bracket 20 attached tothe door and connected to thetubular member 12 in a manner which will bediscussed in more detail hereafter.

Rod 10 enters the tubular member 12 through a bushing 22, allowing therod to slide easily therethrough. The bushing 22 is mounted to rotatewith the rod about the axis thereof, the rod relative to tubular member12 3,289,242 Patented Dec. 6, 1966 ICC to allow for variations inmounting and operation of the rod 10.

Preferably the rod 10 is at on two opposite sides and` rounded on twoopposite sides, and carries a hold-open washer 24 arranged to bite onlyinto the rounded rod sides. The bushing bore corresponding to therounded rod sides is preferably provided with enlargements 26 onintermediate opposed edges to pass burrs caused by the bites All thefeatures referred to in this paragraph are discussed in full in CanadianPatent No. 646,969, which issued on August 2l, 1962. v

The tubular member 12 is preferably cylindrical in cross-section.

The bushing 22 and housing will now be discussed. A pair of members 28and 30 of at thin material, preferably form the housing and arepreferably formed from metal. One of said members 28 is of at shape,while the other 30 is provided with a recess 32 in the form of a surfaceof revolution designed lto slidably receive the bushing 22 therein. Theedge adjacent portions of the first and second members 28V and 30 aredesigned to be juxtaposed and the edge of one, preferably the flatmember 28, is curved toward the other then radially inward, whereby aconcave inward surface is provided about the edge.

The edge of the recessed member 30 is curved to rest against saidconcave inward surface of the at member 28, whereby the recessed member30 is held in place by the curved edge of the at member 28.

Thus the bushing 22 and housing may be pre-assembled by placing thebushing 22 in the recess 32 of member 30 with the edges thereof curvedinward. The member 30 is placed inside the member 28 before the edges ofthe latter are turned inward. Thereafter the edges of member 28 areturned inward, whereby the concave surface of the flat member 28 holdsthe recessed member and thereby the bushing therein is securely held inplace. The two housing members 28 and 30, at a location aligned with thehousing bore, are provided with apertures aligned with the bushing boreand large enough so that they do not interfere with the motion of rod 10through the bushing.

The bushing housing may thus be conveniently preassembled for attachmentto the tubular member 12. i The edge 30 of the tubular member 12, at theend thereof where the rod 10 projects, is curved inwardly to becomplementary to the outside of the curved edge of flat housing member28. Thus, if the tubular member 12 is formed of resilient material, thebushing housing 28 may be snapped into place after the inturned edge 30is formed, or alternatively the housing 28 may be put in the tubularmember rst and the tubular member edge 30 then turned in to retain it inposition.

The housing 28 is retained at the rod attachment end of the tubularmember 12 by a compression spring 32 surrounding the rod, and bearing atone end on the housing 28 and at the other end on a piston 34 on theattachmentremote end of the rod. The main purpose of the spring 34 is,of course, to bias the telescopic members 10 and 12 to contractedposition, and hence to bias the door toward closed position. The piston34 is designed to make a close sliding tit with the sides of the tubularmember 12 and is preferably provided with a washerV 36 for close airsealing engagement with the sides of the tubular member.

Atthe end of the tubular member remote from the rod attachment end isprovided a cup 38, having side walls 40 adapted to be slidably receivedinside the walls of the tubular member with the free edges of the cupheld by the free edges of the tubular member turned inwardly andbackwardly at 42; about the free end of the cup 38, whereby the cup 3Sis effectively clamped in place in the cylinder. The cup 38 bottom 44 islocated at the end of the cup walls adjacent the piston 34, and forms astopv therefor.

The cup-bottom 44 defines, with the piston 34 and the tubular memberwalls therebetween, a piston chamber 46, effectively allowing escape ofair only through an aperture in the cup bottom, and wherein the rate ofescape of air from the chamber controls the rate of contraction of thetelescopic'member and the rate of door closing.

The aperture 48 in cup-bottom 45.! is circular and a nut Stlis mountedin the aperture, by means of aperture dening edges of the apertureresting in a circumferential groove in the nut. The nut may, in somearrangements, be sprung into place or may be inserted through aperture48 and the piston-adjacent groove-defining ange then be provided byturning7 or otherwise working the projecting metal.

The nut S is provided with a bore 52 passing therethrough, and theArod-remote end ofthe bore 52 is provided with threading54, taperinginwardly in the direction of the rod.

The in-turned rod-remote end 42 of the tabular member forms an inwardlyfacing' ridge at that end of the tubular member. A resilient controlknob or cap 56, .preferably made of plastic, is provided with a skirthaving an exterior groove 5S, of dimension so that the groove willreceive such ridge, and the cap 56 may thus be resiliently tted to thetubular member lllfor rotation with respect thereto. The cap 56 isprovided with grooves 6i) located to connect the space defined by thecap bottom and the cup 38 with the exterior. These grooves 6d serve thepurpose of assisting in the resilient attachment of the cap 56 and alsoallow the drainage of any water received in the cap 56.

The cap 56 defines an inwardly facing bore 62 complementary to a spindle64, which is one end of an adjustment screw 66, the adjustment screw andspindle being all one piece, and the bore and spindle members are keyedfor rotational movement together. The adjustment screw 66, remote fromthe cap 56, tapered and threaded to cooperate with the bore threading54. Because of the c0- operating tapered threading, the farther theadjustment screw 66 is turned into the threading 54, the smaller is theair escape route from the chamber 46, while turning the bolt out of thechamber enlarges the passage. To ensure that the adjustment screw 66remains in the bore 54, a small compression spring 68, surrounding thespindle 64-, bears at one end on the cap and at the other end on ashoulder 70 centrally located between the spindle 64 and the adjustmentscrew 66.

The double walls formed by the cup 40 and adjacent tubular member )l2are provided with a parallel pair of slots 72, Whose longitudinaldirection is substantially parallel to the telescopic axis. The bracket20 for attachment to the door is provided with a pair of outstandinghooks 74, each of a size to be received in a slot 72. The hooks are eachprovided with a curved convex side and a concave side being a flat edge76 bounded by two shoulders 78. The flat edge 76 is longer than and isoriented to cooperate with and rest against the double edge thickness oftubular member and cap wall slots 72 and defined thereby to retain thehook in position relative to the telescopic member.

The details of assembly of the door closer are well known, as are thedetails of attachment of the hook to the tubular member and the tubularmember to the frame and the hook to the door. Thus, these matters willnot be discussed herein.

Rotation of the cap 56 rotates the adjustment screw 66 to control thesize of the air escape passage and the raie of closure of the door underthe impulsion of the spring 32.

What I claim as may invention is:

l. In a door closer for attachment to a door member and a stationarymember, and having: a tubular member for connection to one of said doorand stationary members; a rod, telescopically slidable relative to saidtubular member from an extended to a contracted position, for attachmentto the other of said door and stationary members; a spring connected tosaid rod and said tubular member arranged to bias said members towardthe contracted position, the end of said tubular member remote from saidrod attachment end being provided with a cup dened by side walls and anapertured bottom at the end of said cup located toward said rodattachment end; and edges on said side walls remote from said bottom;said side walls being arranged to be received Within the said end ofsaid tubular member; the edges of tubular member end being turnedinwardly over the edges of said cup to retain said cup in position; saidrod having a piston adjacent the end thereof remote from its attachmentend, said piston being designed and constructed to slide inside and inclose'4 proximity to the tubular member walls, the length of saidtubular member between said cup bottom and the piston, in the extendedposition of said tubular member, beingI closed, whereby a variablevolume chamber is provided defined by the bottom of said cup, saidpiston and said tubular member extent, said cup bottom having arestricted air passage, said restricted passage comprising meansdefining a tapered threaded bore extending through said cup bottom, anadjustment screw having thread adapted for threaded engagement in androtated in said bore, said threaded engagement of said bore through saidcup bottom and said adjacent screw being tapered whereby said passage isdened by space between the threads of said adjustment screw and saidbore dening means, said adjustment screw and bore being designed andconstructed so that rotation of said adjustment screw in one directionnarrows said passage, and rotation of said adjustment screw in the otherdirection widens said passage; said in-turned edge of said tabularmember being of cylindrical contour adjacent said adjustment screw, andproviding a ridge at the end of said tubular member adjacent said cup, acap having a manually engageable 'area and a cylindrical resilient skirthaving a groove adapted to receive said ridge, whereby said cap may beresiliently and rotatably afixed to said tabular member with said ridgeresting in said groove; and means for connecting said cap to saidadjustment screw for rotation therewith.

2. A device as claimed in claim l, wherein grooves are provided in saidcap connecting the inside of said grooves with the exterior of said cap.

3. A device as claimed in claim 1, wherein said connecting meanscomprise a shank attached to said adjustment screw extending therefromslidably into a complementary recess in the cap, said adjustment screwand said cap being keyed for rotation together.

4. A device as claimed in claim 1, wherein a compression springsurrounds said shank and the elements are designed and constructed sothat said spring biases said adjustment screw towards said bore.

5. A device as claimed in claim l, wherein means are provided biasingsaid adjustment screw towards said bore,

6. In a door .closer for attachment to a door member and a stationarymember, and having: a tubular member for connection to one of said doorand stationary members; a rod, telescopically slidable relative to saidtubular member, from an extended to a contracted position, forattachment to the other of said door and stationary members; a springconnected to said rod and said tubular member arranged to bias saidmembers toward the contracted position, wherein said tubular member iscylindrical at the end remote from the projecting end of said rod,wherein means are provided in the said remote end of said tubular memberwhich are rotatable relative to the tubular member to raise or lower therate of contraction of said telescopic members, wherein said remote endis provided with a radially inwardly projecting ridge and there isprovided a cap having a manually engageable area and a cylindricalresilient skirt, said skirt having a groove adapted to receive saidridge, whereby said cap may be resiliently and rotatably afxed to saidtubular member with said ridge resting in said groove, and meanscoupling said rate controlling means to said knob for rotation thereby.

References Cited bythe Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS Seyforth 16-66Quinn 16-66 Falk 16-66 Patriquin 16-66 Mallory 16--66 Quinn 16-66 10BOBBY R. GAY, Primary Examiner.

6. IN A DOOR CLOSER FOR ATTACHMENT TO A DOOR MEMBER AND A STATIONARYMEMBER, AND HAVING: A TUBULAR MEMBER FOR CONNECTION TO ONE OF SAID DOORAND STATIONARY MEMBERS; A ROD, TELESCOPICALLY SLIDABLE RELATIVE TO SAIDTUBULAR MEMBER FROM AN EXTENDED TO A CONTRACTED POSITION, FOR ATTACHMENTTO THE OTHER OF SAID DOOR AND STATIONARY MEMBERS; A SPRING CONNECTED TOSAID ROD AND SAID TUBULAR MEMBER ARRANGED TO BIAS SAID MEMBERS TOWARDTHE CONTRACTED POSITION, WHEREIN SAID TUBULAR MEMBER IS CYLINDRICAL ATTHE END REMOTE FROM THE PROJECTING END OF SAID ROD, WHEREIN MEANS AREPROVIDED IN THE SAID REMOTE END OF SAID TUBULAR MEMBER WHICH AREROTATABLE RELATIVE TO THE TUBULAR MEMBER TO RAISE OR LOWER THE RATE OFCONTRACTION OF SAID